Berlin and Potsdam

Last weekend, I went to visit my friend Julia in Berlin. It's amazingly close - only 1h 15min by train (if they arrive in time...). Too bad that Julia is moving away this weekend.

Saturday morning we got up surprisingly early and took the train to Potsdam, of course not after I had my Starbucks latte, which made me feel at home immediately. We went for a really nice walk through the gardens of Sanssouci Castle - a huge park, with already lots of flowers and the trees starting to be green or already completely green. Spring is amazing and comes with such a speed. I missed its beginnings this year...The castle is elaborately decorated showing off the wealth of kings and queens, and indicating the social injustices in that era. And nowadays social differences are well visible at every corner in Eastern Germany...

We enjoyed our walk and continued through the old city centre, which has a nice pedestrian zone with lots of cafes and stores. We rested with a nice pizza with bacon and white truffles and continued to the 'dutch quarter'. It made you feel like you are in Holland, with one exception, there were almost no bikes! The houses look very dutch including very steep stairs, the even sell poffertjes and pannekoeken there. Then, we returned to Berlin, had a Radler outside at the Kastianienallee. And of course I could not miss a good Curry-Wurst! For dinner, we had Vietnamese style food, definitely more elaborated and fancy than anything I had in Toronto, but nevertheless good food!

The next morning, again blue sky and sunshine, we spend having a nice big breakfast on a patio and then strolling over the flea market at the Mauerpark. That's what Berliners do on sunday, spending lots of money for lots of rubbish. There's also lots of nice old stuff, you just got to find it. I got a little sunburned there. We finished the afternoon with a delicious huge cake and then I had to take the train back in the early evening.

Here are some of the picture of the trip:

a turning golden eagle...

Julia in front of the New Palais - this is not the main castle yet...

naked male statues are found everywhere in the park

I like daffodils!

blue hyacinths give a great contrast

the steps to the castle still look very grey without roses and wine flowering...

colourful flowers in front of the castle

close up at the castle. It reminds me a lot of Schoenbrunn in Vienna.

the dutch quarter.

getting you bike ready for spring: a bike wash!

we are back in Berlin!

Radler with lime

Prost! on the patio of 'An einem Sonntag im August'

...and not to be missed when you are in Berlin: Curry-Wurst

Leipzig-first impressions

It has already been a week, that I am back over on this side of the big pond. Time is flying, and I have been busy looking for a place, and getting a little organized (not with much success).

Coming back to Germany was sort of a culture shock. The nice spring weather is very helpful to start feeling at home. But, I still feel a bit lost...

Leipzig seem like a nice second - with the second view. I have to admit, I was shocked when I arrived here and took the tram to my new place (which means for now that I am living in a guest-apartment on the institute site). It goes along the "Eisenbahnstrasse' of which I got to know later from my colleagues that it is one of the sketchier places in town. Lots of run-down places and closed shops. The next on saturday morning started similar - taking the bus through run-down streets south east...Then, I got a nice second hand bike, and it started brightening up. I cycled to the city centre, and there it's beautiful. Nice old restored buildings, the usual shops, a statue of Goethe at the town hall and of Bach in front of the Thomas church. There are lots of nice cafes and restaurants, and streets and streets of nicely restored 'Wilhelminian style'-buildings in the west and south. The people here are friendly and very chatty - it's easy to feel welcome, a little like Canada. Another common thing - the streets are in bad shape, so many road holes that you get well shaken on the bike ride. I enjoyed my first ice-cream outside saturday afternoon walking through the historic centre, and my first 'Radler' in nice neighbourhood Biergarten on sunday afternoon. I made my first trip to the climbing wall sunday evening - it's big, lots of lead routes, the bouldering is a bit small (not in area but in the amounts of routes - they got so much space, they could have made up hundreds of routes).

This week, I spend a lot of time on the apartment search. There are lots of offers for cheap places, but they are often in sketchy areas. It's almost impossible to find something in the in-areas of town. The west of Leipzig and the south are very popular. Now, I decided on a place over the weekend, in the south part of town, where there are lots of cafes, pubs and restaurants. The other option was the north of town, also nice buildings and more of a 'living' neighbourhood with huge apartments, high ceilings, but a little further to cycle to the going-out area. Well, I decided, I am still feeling young and might be interested in having a good coffee in the morning and a nice beer at night. So, let's see if my first choice will work out tomorrow...I'd like to move out here by the end of this month - my windows are covered with construction, and my view out is on some plastic covers...

Work is different then at university - I only have to work 39h/week. There's so much time left! So far, I have only been reading into the material, hopefully about to start my first experiments next week.

There are some of my first impressions of Leipzig - I surely wont run out of photo-motives here!

My guestapartment under construction - I am staying in the 8th floor

On the way to the centre - Plattenbauten and Schrebergarten

Wilhelminian Style houses - only partly restored...

...but most are still run-down here

Art or garbage dumb?

The richer neighbourhoods

Spring!!!

first Radler of the year!